Monster in the Closet
by jj-chan
Summary: Seras Victoria tells a bedtime story spun of butterfly dust, fairy wings, and gossamer. Pairings implied, if you care to see it that way. XD Please read and review!


Edited again, but not by much, to fit the _manga_ canon. Very vague spoilers. XD

Hellsing belongs to the likes of Kouta Hirano. I can't make a character anywhere near as awesome as Seras or Alucard or Walter or Integra-sama.

* * *

**Monster in the Closet**

The sun is setting, painting the sky gold and red and violet. The breeze carries with it autumn leaves, dry and wrinkled and very much dead. Inside the Hellsing manor, Seras Victoria puts down her Halconnen as she hears a young voice calling, light footsteps slowing down as they reach her room, her door opening.

_Good Eve, Miss Seras._

"Hello, good evening to you too! What brings you here?"

_Mother is too busy to attend to me, and the mean soldiers told me to get out of the firing range lest I get shot, then there'll be Hell To Pay. No one wants me around; yet, Miss Victoria is always so kind, she tells the best stories._

Seras smiles warmly, seeing the hopeful shuffling of feet. She shifts her position enough to offer a comfortable seat on her lap.

"Okay…shall we get started, then?" she asks. It is a ritual, by now, and they finish the formalities as a young child climbs into Draculina's lap.

_Thank you._

The child snuggles closer, unafraid.

"Right. So, a story always starts with …"

_Once upon a time…_

"Once upon a time, there was a monster. He lived all alone in a dark closet without a lock. Only a few people knew he lived there, but they did not want to open it. They were afraid."

_Why?_

"He was mean and ornery and liked to scare people, because that was his way. But the others didn't like that. Even his friends did not accept it. He lost everyone's love, and eventually, they couldn't stand him any more. So they shut him up and tried to forget him. "

_Was he really that scary?_

"Hmmm… let's see…" Seras pouts exaggeratedly and pretends to think really hard, earning a little giggle from the girl on her lap. "He had long, black-as-night hair that fell all the way down his back, skin like snow, and very sharp teeth."

_Like yours?_ A small pale hand reaches up and brushes the redhead's fangs. _Like this?_

"No…his were like those of a shark, almost as big, rows and rows of fangs. And he had eyes red as rose." Red as blood.

_All right. So what happened then?_

"Years passed... They forgot about him. He grew resentful, and was twice as mean as he was before. The monster thought that no one missed him; no one needed him, and told himself that he was unlovable and evil. So he was. He said it didn't make him sad, but I don't believe it."

_Poor monster. It is ALWAYS sad if no one's there to hug you and kiss you goodnight._

Seras' arms tighten involuntarily around cotton - covered shoulders.

"… and it went on like that for years – and years and years. Until one day, there was light. At first it was just a bright little line, but it spread and spread until he was nearly blinded. Someone had found the key, and opened the closet door."

She takes a deep breath, the first in a couple of days. Old habits die, but they die hard. "It was a little girl."

_Oh oh oh! Was she much like the gentle, pretty ones from storybooks? Alice, Red Riding Hood, and Mary Sue?_

"No, she wasn't exactly like that." Seras chuckles, suddenly amused. "She looked rather plain; too dark to be pretty, too bossy to be gentle, with fire-blue eyes. She was very stubborn, but she was kind in her own way. She had come to free the monster, and to – "

_I suppose the monster was very grateful then. Wait, why does the monster have no name?_

"Hey!" She grabs a glossily dark head, giving it a playful noogie. "Wait till I'm done, 'kay? But in truth, no, he wasn't.

"He was angry."

Angry – 

Seras foiled a barrage of questions by tapping a pert little nose and making a shushing sound.

"The monster didn't think that anyone would come and do anything other than make fun of him or scold him.

"So he growled inside himself at the girl, but gave an inviting, secretive smile, the kind that only cunning, sly monsters use. He wanted to hurt her, to drive her away before she could hurt _him_ like all the others, but then she said something to make him stop cold. And hesitate."

_What did she say? What did she say?_

"'Hello. I've come to be your friend,' she said, and the monster's jaw dropped, showing all his horrifying, perfect teeth. But then…

"'_Liar!' _he yelled, forgetting his sly, cunning plans. 'No one could love me! I am angry and mean and very ornery! I am evil; I don't need friends or love! Look at my hair, my skin, my fangs, my eyes! How could anyone love a monster like this? _Go away!_'

"But the little girl stayed, which I think was very brave because a lot of little girls would have run away after seeing his fangs and blood-red eyes, and replied bluntly:

'I love you _because_ you are mean and ornery and bad. You are what you are; you don't pretend to be anything else.'

"'I love you because you were locked away when no one understood you. You are sad and lonely, even if you won't admit it. I love you because no one else can understand you.'" Seras adds, too quietly.

"'I loved you because you needed it; I will love you because I can.'"

_What happened next?_

"Oh, the monster laughed. It was low and ugly, and very sad, though no one would guess so, not even I." Seras sighs softly.

"'And what of my shadows-borne hair, my cold bloodless skin, my rows of sharp teeth, my burning red eyes? What of my evil, mischievous magic, are you not afraid I might sneak up to you in your sleep and take everything away from you?'

"'Are you not afraid of _me_?'"

"'No,' she said blandly, rolling her eyes. 'I would have thought that was obvious.'"

"'Foolish!' he scoffed. 'Do you know who I am? I am a monster who is doomed to destroy everything, everything I hold! Those I have loved; those I have hated! I am cursed; did no one tell you that?'

"'So?' the girl smirked, and ignored his glare, for she was very, very stubborn and had pride enough to spare, 'I will face that when it happens. For now, don't really care.'"

"The monster laughed again, twice as sad and twice as ugly, even though precious few could think to hear the sadness in it." She shivers, like she always used to in the past, but the tremors are too small for people to notice anymore.

"But the little girl didn't even flinch, because she knew it for what it was. She stayed, looking a little impatient, and the monster knew he couldn't scare her any more.

"'My efforts to keep you to apart from me don't seem to be working,' he said ruefully. 'Very well, you silly, brave girl, you shall see for yourself how terrible I am.'"

_Oh, when she heard that, what did she do?_

"Funny you should ask that." Now it is Seras laughing, and hers is free and light, for darkness has yet to reach it, but already there are strains of weariness in it, a faint melancholy.

"She didn't hug him or kiss him, or even offer him a hand. Nope, she gave him a nod, smiling, and walked away."

_Walked _away

"Yes, because she knew he would follow, and he did." Seras' voice seems faraway. "At least, he almost always did."

She trails off into silence, and the girl follows, cocking her head curiously.

_Does it end here, Miss Victoria? Your tale is rather… unusual, today. But I do not mean that it wasn't good, for it was – _

"Shhh, we're almost done. Don't worry, I was just remembering. Now, where were we? Oh, yes…

"It took a while, but the little girl and the monster became friends."

_And did they live happily ever after too?_

"No…" Seras' smile is tinted with a bit of wistfulness. "Because every living thing has to die sooner or later.

"But in between that, they lived. Oh, there were fights and sulks as well as games and fun, but for the most part, they made the best of life, and they were happy."

_And love? What about love?_

"Yes, there was a lot of that, more than enough to go around. It isn't the neat, pretty kind of love you read about in story books, but it is love all the same." Seras nods thoughtfully and looks into ice-blue eyes, gazing back at her own rosy ones with the unblinking curiosity of the very young.

"She loves him because he needs it, and he loves her because he can."

**End**

**

* * *

**

You are entitled to pick holes in it and think what you like. It's still roughly done and unpolished, (coughcoughstillbadcoughcough) but please review! HUGE thanks to Thess because jj would have known jack shit about Alucard (or volumes nine and eight) – if not for her. Thank you SO MUCH!


End file.
